Today’s Managing Health Care Costs Indicator is 2.8 million
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When I was in medical school, we still didn’t know what caused AIDS.
When I was in my residency, the HIV virus had been identified, but we were at best able to treat associated infections and cancer. AZT (zidovudine) was licensed in 1987 – the year I finished my residency. Everyone I cared for with HIV disease during my training died – most within a year of diagnosis. Some died the very hospitalization of their diagnosis. When I moved into practice, treatment was improved a bit, but AIDS still had a 100% mortality.
Highly active antiretroviral therapy is one of the miracles of my medical lifetime. I now frequently see patients who have had HIV for years and even decades. They have to take pills –and the pills are expensive. The pills have some dreadful side effects, too. But the incidence of pneumocystis pneumonia and Kaposi’s Sarcoma and brain lymphomas and ophthalmologic fungal infections has plummeted. People with HIV are living meaningful and productive lives with their disease – a huge medical success.
In the early years of highly active antiretroviral (HAART) therapy, the cost of caring for HIV patients declined. We were diagnosing people earlier, and while we spent a lot on medications, we spent far less on hospitalizations than we had in the terrible early days of the HIV epidemic. It’s estimated that HAART has saved 2.8 million years of life – and prevented 2900 cases of HIV infection of infants at birth.
But this is a blog on managing health care costs, and at $14,000 HAART is hardly cheap. However, there is more evidence this year that treating HIV is a good bargain.
It turns out that HAART dramatically decreases the rate of transmission of HIV. Look at the chart at the top of this post. There are finally fewer global cases of HIV in 2009 than in 2008. HIV might have peaked –and it’s this cocktail of antiretroviral medicines that have likely made the difference.
It turns out that HAART dramatically decreases the rate of transmission of HIV. Look at the chart at the top of this post. There are finally fewer global cases of HIV in 2009 than in 2008. HIV might have peaked –and it’s this cocktail of antiretroviral medicines that have likely made the difference.
It’s rare to have medicines so expensive serve as a viable public health intervention. This is one of those heartening examples. HAART for HIV infection is a great example of how progress in medical care can yield future societal benefits and even cost savings.
